Abstract:Ambient Intelligence is a vision in which various devices come together and process
information from multiple sources in order to exert control on the physical environment. In addition to
computation and control, communication plays a crucial role in the overall functionality of such a
system. Wireless Sensor Networks are one such class of networks, which meet these criteria. These
networks consist of spatially distributed sensor motes which work in a co-operative manner to sense
and control the environment. In this work, an implementation of an energy-efficient and cost-effective,
wireless sensor networks based vehicle parking system for a multi-floor indoor parking facility has been
introduced. The system monitors the availability of free parking slots and guides the vehicle to the
nearest free slot. The amount of time the vehicle has been parked is monitored for billing purposes. The
status of the motes (dead/alive) is also recorded. Information like slot allocated, directions to the slot
and billing data is sent as a message to customer’s mobile phones. This paper extends our previous work
1 with the development of a low cost sensor mote, about one tenth the cost of a commercially
available mote, keeping in mind the price sensitive markets of the developing countries.